About Photo Color Correction
The owner, and chief of quality control has nearly 40 years of color correcting experience and has color corrected millions of prints over several decades and has authored and taught courses in Photo Lab Management and color theory.
In reality, color correction can be a personal choice. Much like your Mom's pasta sauce. Being artists ourselves, we look at every image and correct brightness, contrast and color based on the scene. Our goal is to produce the most accurate, but, striking reproduction your image will allow us to make.
It is good to know your preferences. Things to know are;
- Do you prefer prints that are punchy, or soft and delicate.
- Do you prefer prints that are warmer or cooler.
- Do you prefer your colors vivid or softer.
A few words about room lighting and matching originals...
The lighting conditions in the room that will display your enlargement can have an affect on it's appearance. One should note the overall brightness, and lighting source.Also, an original and a reproduction may not always look the same in different lighting. This phenomenon, called metarism, is where two colors will appear to match under a particular light source, but not under a different one. The reason involves the original and print inks and materials reflecting and absorbing light differently.
| Bright Rooms | Rooms that are very bright can make a print look like it is too bright. |
|---|---|
| Dark Rooms | Can leave an image looking too dark |
| Incandescent Lighting | Your average incandescent bulb is strong in color towards the yellow region, leaving prints looking too warm. |
| Fluorescent Lighting | Unless a full-spectrum daylight balanced bulb is used, fluorescent lighting shifts towards the green end of the spectrum and is deficient in reds. |
| Daylight | Rooms with a lot of daylight can shift from looking fairly normal to very blue (overcast skies). |
For important photographs, you should comment to us what the final lighting will be like so we can correct your photo to look best under that lighting condition. We generally color correct in an average bright room with cool white fluorescent and incandescent lighting.
Special Effects
We can alter your photo by many ways. Poplular affects are;
- Black and White conversion (no extra charge)
- Sepia or Selenium (no extra charge)
- Mono and Duo-tones
- Posterization
- Silohetting (requires custom quote)
The sky is the limit!
Please indicate your wishes in the comment section of the order.
